Greetings and welcome to April. Last month’s Special Commemorative Edition was dedicated entirely to Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr.—the most consequential civil rights leader of our lifetimes. This month, we move into a month of jazz culminating with International Jazz Day on April 30th, with Chicago as host city. Based on our track record as the official Friday Jazz at the Quarry magazine, we’re thrilled that Mayor Brandon Johnson and recently appointed head of  DCASE, Kenya Merritt, will acknowledge city-wide jazz events and talk a global platform we offer, in print, articles to inform and enlighten, as the south side has a history unlike any other.

You’ll love that lead statement, While Jazz was Born in New Orleans, It Was Raised in Chicago, you’ll appreciate our brief jazz history, and getting to know, and wanting to see seasoned and now generation jazz makers, as well as Salim Muwakkil’s AACM article. I wanted to include amazing talent and legacy from Bobbi Wilson to Jun Yvon, James Perkins, Rudolph Jackson, and Erv Holmes, to Justin Dillard, Charles Rick Heath IV, Tomeka Reid, and others, space would not allow. Please make an effort to seek them out.

While gentrification reshapes cities across the nation, Chicago’s southside neighborhoods hold their own—and are quietly getting better. Four women are at the heart of that progress, pouring their time, love, and talents into making their communities the best they can be.

Chicago’s South Shore is a historic lakefront neighborhood known for its striking architecture, the South Shore Cultural Center, and its scenic access to Lake Michigan beaches and parks. At the helm of this vibrant community is Tonya Trice, Executive Director of the South Shore Chamber of Commerce. With Tonya leading, South Shore is blooming and getting better day-by-day.

Read on to discover what Greater Chatham Initiative Executive Director Nedra Fears has already accomplished combining the power of four neighborhoods, and what’s in store next.

Photographer and Social Justice Artist Tonika Lewis Johnson is shaping Englewood while using her creativity to document citywide environmental injustice. A picture is worth a thousand words—and in Tonika’s case, her work has proven worth, She received an $800,000 Genius Award from the MacArthur Foundation.

In every family, there’s “the creative one.” In the Carpenter family, that label fits everyone. Creativity is the tie that binds them, and Tanikia Carpenter shares that story and her husband’s, Just Steve, and their young daughter’s. It’s her journey and the multi-faceted creative artistry of her entire family.

The Bronzeville renaissance didn’t just happen—it took years of work, love, dedication, and community. Sandra Bivens, Executive Director of the 51st  Street Business Association, is a vital part of that story.

On a sad note, two gifted women—both pillars of Chicago’s media community—joined the Ancestors last month.

Sharon Morgan was a trailblazer who brought the concept of public relations into advertising, pitching the idea to Tom Burrell in the early 1980s. She went on to live in Jamaica, opened a restaurant in Paris, resided in Johannesburg, and founded Black Ancestry as a genealogist. She traced her roots to a Mississippi plantation where her ancestors were enslaved. She bought that land, made it her home, and it was there in Ol’ Miss where she received her angel wings.

In her early twenties, Tracey Alston became the youngest person to co-own a radio station—jazz station WBEE, alongside Charles Sherrell. Her entrepreneurial spirit soon led her to launch Danielle-Ashley Communications and to create the First Ladies’ Health Initiative, uniting church first ladies across Chicago, its suburbs, and California. Ironically, Tracey received her angel wings on the very same day as Sharon Morgan. Both women will be deeply missed. 

Please join us in thanking the MacArthur Foundation and the Field Foundation of Illinois for their support, which partly allows South Side Drive Magazine to amplify Black voices and serve as a major Chicago publishing force. Find us on social media at www.SouthSideDriveMag.com. #southsidedrive. With Gratitude and Pride.

Yvette Moyo